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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg 2018; 13(04): 1282-1284
DOI: 10.4103/ajns.AJNS_112_18
Case Report

Intramedullary spinal cord lipoma mimicking a late subacute hematoma

Ivan Pasalic
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
,
Klara Brgic
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
,
Jakob Nemir
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
,
Danijela Kolenc
1   Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
,
Niko Njiric
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
,
Goran Mrak
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb
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Spinal cord lipomas are rare and benign tumors which may cause progressive neurological deficits due to their local expansion. We present the case of a 59-year-old male patient with severe lumbosacral pain and slowly progressive paresis of the right leg, misdiagnosed with degenerative spine disease. Repeated magnetic resonance (MR) T1-weighted images of the thoracic spine suggested a subacute intramedullary hematoma. Due to progression of the neurological deficit, the patient was referred to a neurosurgeon, who indicated surgical evacuation of the hematoma. The intraoperative finding revealed an intramedullary spinal cord lipoma, which was later confirmed by histological analysis. Since subacute intramedullary hematomas and intramedullary spinal cord lipomas present with similar clinical and radiological features, diffusion-weighted MR imaging should be used to distinguish these entities.

Key-words:

Diffusion-weighted imaging - intramedullary spinal cord lipoma - subacute intramedullary hematoma


Publication History

Article published online:
14 September 2022

© 2018. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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